


Come Dancing

by NoSleepUntilVacation



Series: That Sweet Soul Music [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bittersweet, Family Feels, Flashbacks, Gen, Ghost Mettaton, Memories, Napstablook knows Mettaton's original identity, Pre-Canon, Reminiscing, Selectively Mute Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-17 22:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14839982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoSleepUntilVacation/pseuds/NoSleepUntilVacation
Summary: Shyren and Napstablook take a trip down memory lane, remembering two relatives who don't live in Waterfall anymore. Even if their respective family members aren't here right now, they still have their memories.





	Come Dancing

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song "Come Dancing" by The Kinks.
> 
> This is my first time giving Napstablook a major role, and I'm wondering how they play off of someone who is just as shy as they are, so forgive me if the characterization is a little choppy.

Shyren floated through Waterfall, humming an old tune to herself. Even though she loved this tune, she did not have the courage to _really_ sing her heart out. She just knew that someone would hear her; not a lot of the denizens of Waterfall had particularly kind things to say about her singing.

Her heart sank a little bit. Why couldn't she be the kind of person who could just sing without caring what anyone thought of it, like...

Like _her?_

Sometimes Shyren would wander aimlessly through Waterfall, especially when she thought no one else was around. She didn't interact with most people who wandered around this area; Woshua didn't like her singing, Aaron seemed a bit too desperate most of the time, Moldbygg preferred solitude more than anything else (something which Shyren couldn't blame it for), and Temmie... Shyren didn't even know where to start with Temmie! Sweet as she was, Temmie didn't seem to understand boundaries.

That being said, on this particular day, Shyren felt lonely. She had one goal in mind as she floated through Waterfall; she made it past the garbage dump, and into a quiet area. _Almost there..._

And then, the two houses came into view. One bluish-grey, one pink. Shyren didn't even bother going up to the pink house; its owner hadn't lived there in quite some time. She would know otherwise; there would be some kind of sound coming from it, whether music, laughter, or something else. So she floated up to the other house and gently knocked on the door.

For a brief moment, there was silence, as if she hadn't knocked at all. Then, the door opened, revealing a certain ghost.

"Oh..." Napstablook's eyes widened. "Good afternoon, Shyren..."

Shyren gave a weak smile and a small wave. "Can I come in? If it's okay?"

"I guess, if you want to..." Napstablook floated back inside; they continued speaking as Shyren followed them. "I'm sorry about the mess; I wasn't expecting company today. But I do like having you around."

"Thank you..." Shyren felt relieved in her heart that at least one monster appreciated her company. She could only think of a few other monsters who would; unfortunately, none of them were here right now. And at least two of them probably never would be again.

In that instant, her face fell; she remembered why she was here in the first place.

"So... is there any particular reason why you wanted to come over?" Napstablook asked. "Did you want to hear my latest spooktunes, or did you want to lie on the ground and feel like garbage with me, or... did you come over 'just because'?"

Shyren looked down. "I just wanted someone to talk to..." She let out a deep, depressed sigh.

"Oh..." Napstablook felt a spark of recognition. Shyren would come over to visit sometimes, but whenever she was sad like this, it usually meant she had one very specific topic on her mind. This topic was one that Napstablook knew thoroughly well.

After floating a little more towards the inside of the room, Shyren allowed herself to descend to the ground. She looked up at Napstablook, her eyes brimming with tears, and said the words that Napstablook knew were coming.

"I miss Mimi..."

As if like clockwork, Napstablook lay down next to her, staring up at the ceiling. "I miss her too..."

Shyren closed her eyes, letting the tears stream down her face as she quietly sobbed. "She... she was one of the only people who liked my singing..."

_"Si re si re si mi si mi..." Shyren sadly sighed and looked into the water. Why was it so hard to stay on key?_

_"You have to keep trying, Shy!"_

_"Hmm?" Shyren turned around, almost expecting someone to mock her, but gently smiled when she saw who it was. "Oh... hello, Mimi."_

_Doughremi, known as "Mimi" to her friends and family, looked similar to her sister in many ways. However, she kept her hair out of her eyes, and her scales were more of a chartreuse color, unlike the aquamarine of Shyren's scales. Personality-wise, though, the two were almost opposites; while Shyren often kept to herself, Mimi adored being the center of attention._

_"No one becomes the best singer in the world overnight, Shy," Mimi said. "If you keep practicing, you're gonna get the hang of it before you know it!" She playfully messed up Shyren's hair a little. "In the meantime, when you sing, don't sound like you're apologizing for singing! It's nothing to be ashamed of."_

_Shyren thought about things; she was too often ashamed to let her voice fly free. All it would take was one wrong note, or one forgotten lyric, and she'd be a laughingstock. "I'll try to remember that."_

_Mimi floated up to Shyren and patted her with a fin. "You're far better than what you give yourself credit for. One of these days, you're gonna headline a sold-out show. I just know it!"_

_"Maybe someday." She didn't know if she was that good, but she smiled at her sister's words nonetheless._

Shyren sadly sighed. "To this day, I still haven't headlined any shows, let alone sold-out shows. It's hard to find a good place to practice when the waterways are your home. And..." Another sad sigh, with more tears brimming. "It takes me tons of courage just to sing at all. If I hear one more person call my singing terrible..."

Napstablook frowned, not sure of what to say. "I'm sorry... I mean, I'd offer some advice myself, but I don't really know anything about singing..."

A thought entered Napstablook's mind. **_He_** _does, though... but..._

"Thank you anyway." Shyren gave a brief smile. "I don't want to give up... Mimi wouldn't want me to." She remembered how sometimes, Mimi needed her just as much as she needed Mimi.

_"Am I pretty?" Mimi asked one day._

_Shyren stopped playing the piano and looked up. "Of course you are! Who said you weren't?"_

_"I just... haven't been feeling sure." Mimi sighed. "I went to the garbage dump to see if I could find new music, and I found a bunch of old celebrity tabloids. A lot of them made a big deal about the celebrities' looks. I don't want them to laugh at me just because my hair is messy one day, or something!"_

_Initially, Shyren wasn't sure of what to say. She'd never considered herself a caretaker; normally, it was Mimi who'd be taking care of her on a bad day. But she felt like she had to say something; it was what Mimi would do for her, after all. So, she floated up to Mimi and hugged her as best as she could._

_"I don't like you just because of your looks. I like you because you're you."_

_Mimi sighed. "You're just saying that 'cause you're my sister, aren't you?"_

_"Aren't sisters supposed to stand up for each other?" Shyren gently smiled at Mimi. "Besides, lots of people love to hear you sing. And you always help me feel better; you speak up for me when I can't do it myself. Being pretty is about what's inside just as much as the outside."_

_"Hmm..." Within the hug, Shyren could feel Mimi begin to relax a little bit._

_Shyren had another thought. "Besides, what is it that Napsta's cousin said that one time? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or something like that?" She hugged her sister a little more tightly. "There are a lot of monsters in the Underground. Someone has to think you're beautiful."_

_Mimi smiled. "I guess you're right."_

"She was so worried that no one thought she was beautiful..." Shyren looked up. "And then, one day, she found someone who did."

"I remember that..." Napstablook said, sharing in the memory.

_Napstablook and Shyren were floating down the corridors of Waterfall, admiring the colorful stones. Shyren listened as Napstablook told her about their hobby._

_"Ever since our best customer stopped showing up, I've started creating spooktunes. Maybe if enough people like them, I could sell them for money."_

_"Do your cousins like them?" Shyren asked._

_Napstablook became slightly more translucent. "Well... I don't know what Maddy thinks yet. They've just been talking about wanting to leave the farm and become a training dummy. But--"_

_"Wow...!"_

_Both Shyren and Napstablook gasped at the sudden shouting, the former feeling her throat close up, and the latter vanishing almost completely._

_Just as suddenly as the voice came, a monster with the upper body of a muscular horse and the lower body of a fish came swimming (through the air) up to them. The look on his face was as if he'd just won the lottery, especially as he laid eyes upon Shyren. He didn't even seem to notice her trembling._

_"Doughremi? Is that you?" The monster seemed to be grinning with every sentence he spoke. "I'm your biggest fan! You sing all the best songs!"_

_With a panicked expression, Shyren looked desperately at Napstablook and shook her head, gesturing towards her throat. Napstablook faded back into visibility, causing the newcomer to yelp a little._

_"Oh... you're looking for Doughremi?" Napstablook asked. "If you are, she's at my cousin's place. This is Shyren, her sister."_

_The monster delivered his own "Oh..." Despite the awkwardness of the situation, he still couldn't stop grinning. "Can we go visit her? I mean, if she doesn't mind? I've been wanting to tell her for so long that I love hearing her sing, and that I think she's beautiful."_

_Napstablook briefly looked at Shyren, and upon receiving a tentative nod, looked back at the monster. "I guess if you want to... we were going in that direction anyway, and we wouldn't want to let you down..."_

_"All right!"_

_The duo, now a trio, continued on their way through the halls._

_"So, you're Doughremi's sister? And your name is Shyren?" the monster asked._

_All Shyren could do in response was nod; even though she had no reason to believe the monster was a threat, he still felt a little too boisterous for her comfort._

_The monster blinked. "You okay? You've been awfully quiet this whole time..."_

_Napstablook turned their gaze to face him. "She's selectively mute." They didn't want to say any more, for fear of upsetting him._

_"Oh... I gotcha." He smiled at Shyren. "Don't worry, I don't bite. And unlike my brother, I try not to be creepy. He's a good guy all around, but... anyway. My name's Ryan. Pleased to meet you!"_

_Shyren gave him a gentle smile, despite not being able to do much else at the moment._

_"I'm Napstablook." Napstablook continued focusing on the path, not noticing that Ryan shuddered slightly. "We should be almost there..."_

_Soon enough, the three made it to the snail farm. Several different snails sat in their corral, some tucked into their shells, some not. Two houses were near the corral; from the pink one, the trio could hear the sounds of what seemed to be a synthpop song from the surface, and two voices in the house were loudly singing along. One voice was feminine, and another seemed to be at least a little more masculine._

_Eventually, the song apparently ended, and the feminine voice spoke up with a laugh; Shyren immediately recognized it as her sister's voice. "Why would anyone throw this song away? It's so cool!"_

_When the other voice answered, Napstablook knew it in an instant. "Well, darling, I think some people just don't know what they're missing! More for us!"_

_While the two in the house began debating which song to sing next, Ryan went up to the door and gave a few solid knocks._

_"I got it!" said Mimi's voice. The door opened, revealing Mimi floating there; she looked a little puzzled. "Oh... hello. Can I help you with something?"_

_Suddenly, a pink ghost floated up next to Mimi. After looking shocked for a second, he sneered in contempt. "Aaron, how many times do I have to tell you we're not interested?"_

_The look on Ryan's face briefly spelled out "oh no, there's two of them", but he didn't seem too affected. "Oh, I'm not Aaron. I'm his brother Ryan."_

_The pink ghost sighed. "So now he's sending out his brother to speak for him. Fabulous."_

_"No! I'm not here on his behalf." He looked at Mimi. "You're Doughremi, right?"_

_"Yes." Mimi couldn't help but stare in confusion; what was going on here?_

_"Well, I just wanted to tell you that I'm a very big fan of yours." Ryan blinked, offering a friendly smile. "And... yeah. I hope you have a good day."_

_He waved goodbye, and turned to leave._

_"Wait!"_

_"Huh?"_

_Before Ryan knew it, Mimi floated out of the house and went up next to him with a smile of her own._

_"I'm just curious... what do you like about me?"_

_Ryan's eyes sparkled. "Well, first of all, I really love your voice."_

_As the two went off to continue their discussion, Napstablook looked at their cousin. "He really wanted to meet Mimi... now that I think about it, I don't know if this was a very good idea..." They nearly vanished._

_"Well, he at least seems to be behaving himself." The pink ghost looked rather serious for a moment. "If he starts acting creepy, though, he is leaving immediately. Having just Aaron harassing us is bad enough."_

_Shyren looked over at her sister; judging by the bright smiles on her and Ryan's faces, the two seemed to be hitting it off quite well. The tension in her throat ebbed away enough for her to speak again. "I think he's okay."_

Indeed, it turned out that he was, as Shyren remembered. "He loved telling my sister that she was beautiful... they always used to laugh together..."

"Yes..." Napstablook hadn't seen the two quite as frequently as Shyren had. They kept mostly to themselves as they worked on the snail farm; while they didn't dislike others, it sometimes felt like their relatives, their snails, and Shyren were all the company they needed.

Suddenly, Shyren's face fell, and she swallowed hard, feeling like there was a rock in her throat. "And yet... I barely even got to know Ryan before... before..." She wiped a tear from her eye, only to feel more coming to replace it. "That day..."

While Napstablook had only learned about it after the fact, they could almost see it clearly, having heard the story before.

_"And that's why I'm thinking of starting a diary collection." The pink ghost smiled at Shyren. "Have you ever wanted to collect anything, darling?"_

_"Hmm... I could collect rocks or something." Shyren rubbed her head with her fin. "Where would I put them, though?"_

_"A secret underwater alcove, perhaps?"_

_Before they could continue their little discussion, they heard a rapidly-approaching voice crying out for help. However, as the voice became clearer, their expressions were caught somewhere between concern and contempt, for they knew exactly whose voice this was._

_An exasperated sigh fell from the pink ghost's mouth. Aaron._

_When Aaron managed to approach them, he looked like the world was crashing down, even as he continued winking. "It's horrible!"_

_Shyren hid behind the pink ghost, who rolled his eyes at the new arrival. "What is? The fact that you can't get a date? We're still not interested, by the way."_

_"No! This is serious!" Tears were beginning to stream from Aaron's eyes. "My brother... he brought his date to our house. She looked a lot like her." He motioned towards Shyren. "They both seemed really, really depressed after a while, and when they went up to his room, I told them to let me know if they needed anything."_

_Depressed? Shyren felt her soul begin to pound. When a monster was incredibly depressed, it often meant... it couldn't be..._

_"And after a while, it got really quiet up there. I went up to ask them if they wanted anything, and... and..." Aaron put his face in his hands. "No matter what I did, they wouldn't wake up."_

_It felt like part of Shyren's soul just crumbled away. Ryan, from what little she'd known about him, had a very bright outlook on life. And Mimi, her very own sister, the one who had given her what little confidence she'd had, who had spoken for her when she needed it... they had both fallen down?_

_"I... I don't know how much time they have left." The look on Aaron's face had never been more grave. "They're still where I found them, if you'd... like to say goodbye..."_

_Shyren was finding it harder to see every second, her eyes filling up with tears. "Okay..."_

_The pink ghost frowned; this was horrible news indeed, but what if Aaron was just trying to...? "I'm coming with you."_

_When Aaron's only response was "Fine by me!", the ghost's heart sunk like a stone. Aaron must have been telling the truth._

_Several quick maneuvers through the waterways later, the three made it to Aaron's house. Once inside, they wasted no time in heading up to Ryan's room. Aaron all but threw himself into the room, looking around frantically, before peeking out at the others. "They're still here."  
_

_Taking a deep breath to steel herself as best as she could, Shyren floated into the room. Ryan and Mimi both lay on the bed, completely still, their formerly-expressive faces equally lifeless. The one consolation seemed to be that, if they fell down, they at least fell down in each other's arms._

_"Mimi...?" Shyren floated up to her sister and gently prodded her. "Come on, Mimi, it's me. Your sister? Shyren?" When that failed to provoke a response from either of the bed's occupants, Shyren's soul really began to rush. "Don't you remember?" Taking a deep breath, she decided to free her voice. "Si re si re si mi si mi... si re si re si mi..." But neither of them woke up. Shyren's fins, voice, and expression all dropped. "...si...mi..."_

_Lowering herself onto the bed, she buried her face in both her fins and the mattress and just cried. She could hear a voice behind her._

_"Shyren, darling... I'm not sure what to say, except... I'm so, so sorry..."_

As Shyren continued to wipe the tears from her eyes, she spoke again. "And it wasn't long after that before the Royal Scientist... offered to take their bodies. She said they would come back; she personally told me they were alive! But to this day, I haven't heard anything else from her, or seen them around..." She floated up to Napstablook, looking them in the eye. "I just want to know what happened to my sister! Is she alive? Is she dust? At this point, all I want is an answer..."

At this point, Napstablook honestly had no idea what to say; the last thing they would want to do would be to make the situation worse. To make up for it, they shuffled a little closer as Shyren lowered herself back onto the ground and continued crying.

For several long minutes, the two just lay there, thinking about the old days. This was the kind of situation they wouldn't wish on anyone; Aaron may have been creepy, yes, but he certainly didn't deserve to lose his brother. And Shyren really didn't deserve to lose her sister. They'd heard that a local Moldbygg had lost its family member as well to whatever must have claimed Mimi and Ryan; although they didn't know the mold monsters very well, they too felt sympathetic.

Eventually, Shyren had found that she'd cried so much that the tears just wouldn't come anymore. It was at this point that she remembered something else. "And... shortly after that... your cousin left, didn't he? I haven't seen him around..."

"Yes..." Napstablook let out a ghostly sigh. "He would keep leaving the house for longer and longer periods, and then one day, he just... didn't come back..."

Shyren's face paled as she thought about it some more. "You... you don't think he..."

As Napstablook slowly realized what Shyren was implying, they felt they needed to speak up. "Actually... I think I know what happened to him."

"You do...?" Shyren watched as Napstablook suddenly got up and opened a drawer, getting something from inside using mysterious measures.

Once Napstablook found what they needed, they turned back around and floated up to Shyren. "Have you ever heard of the robot celebrity Mettaton?" They held up a framed picture they'd retrieved from the drawer. "This is what he looks like..."

Shyren carefully studied the picture; she'd thought she'd seen the rectangular, wheeled, screen-for-a-face robot elsewhere, but she wasn't entirely sure. "Maybe?"

"Oh..." Napstablook blinked. "Well... I don't want to jump to conclusions or anything, but... I think he might actually be my cousin in a new body."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's just..." Napstablook looked up. "I've seen some of his shows, and... from what I can tell, he likes a lot of the same things my cousin liked, and acts like he used to act. My cousin would have loved him, but... Mettaton didn't become famous until after my cousin left. Mettaton calls people 'darling' and 'sweetheart', like my cousin used to do. Even his voice sounds kinda similar..."

Napstablook sunk down to lie on the ground with Shyren again. "By now, I'd be more surprised if they _weren't_ the same..."

Slowly putting two and two together, Shyren realized that Napstablook may have been right. Her look of recognition soon gave way to a distraught look. "But if they're the same, then... why would he just leave without saying goodbye? He promised that the three of us could perform together; if he really wanted to perform, why didn't he take us with him? Or at least promise to visit?"

"I don't know... maybe he was afraid that we would try to talk him out of it. I mean, when I saw him on stage and heard his fans cheering for him... I don't think I'd ever seen him that happy before." They sighed. "And it wouldn't be right to just... take that away from him and make him live on the farm again, where he wouldn't get to live his dreams... I don't want to weigh him down. And besides..." For a second, they glanced at the photograph. "My life isn't very exciting, so seeing him perform sort of fills that void. Maybe he'll come back someday..."

"I hope so." Shyren sadly sighed; her two main role models either were in limbo or had no desire to revisit the old days. If anything happened to Napstablook, she didn't know what she would do.

At some point, the two began to daydream as they lay on the ground. In the midst of the typical daydreams about distant galaxies and the vastness of space, they both somehow happened on a very similar vision.

_In front of a cheering crowd of both monsters and humans, a robot on a wheel pivoted around the highly-decorated stage as he sang his heart out. Next to him, a chartreuse fish joyfully sang the counterpoints. Meanwhile, in the background, Napstablook operated the sound equipment, and Shyren provided some harmonies; she still wasn't ready to sing lead, but she was no longer ashamed of her voice._

_When the song ended, Mettaton and Mimi bowed to their adoring fans. Amidst all the rose petals thrown on stage, Mimi caught a whole rose out of midair; she giggled as she saw Ryan in the audience, excitedly waving at her with one arm while holding Aaron off with his other arm. The reunited Moldbyggs burbled in excitement, and every member of the ghost family was there to support their cousins. With a heart shining on his screen, Mettaton encouraged the audience to cheer for his bandmates before the next song started._

_..._

_Maybe someday._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm honestly not sure if this is my best work. Given that the backstories in the game itself are kinda vague at best, I had to fill in the gaps, and I'm worried that I didn't make it very accurate to canon. Also, I don't usually write angst (not only because I prefer to write happier stories, but also because I'm afraid of getting yelled at for writing something emotional), so it may seem restrained or something. Finally, I think there could have been a little more story between Shyren's flashbacks, or even at least one more flashback before the last one.
> 
> If you have any tips for improvement, I'd like to hear them.


End file.
